The prime minister is not taking Premier Doug Ford up on the suggestion he could meet with premiers to reopen the Constitution and redefine the use of the notwithstanding clause.

Justin Trudeau said the solution is simple: “Just don’t use the notwithstanding clause proactively.”

The Ford government used its majority in Queen’s Park to adopt a law making a walkout by CUPE school employees illegal, which included applying the notwithstanding clause pre-emptively so that it could not be challenged in court as a violation of the collective bargaining rights.

The CUPE members defied the law. On Monday, Ford agreed to repeal the bill if the education workers would return to class — and the union agreed.

READ MORE: CUPE accepts Doug Ford’s offer to repeal Bill 28 if education workers return to work

But in the meantime, Ford took a reporter's question about the prime minister's criticism of his use of the notwithstanding clause and replied that the province was well within its rights to use it.

"The prime minister is being selective within certain provinces about his concerns of overturning the notwithstanding clause," he replied, likely referring to Quebec, which has also used the clause pre-emptively. "If he wants to sit down with all the premiers and have a conversation about the Constitution, that's something he needs to decide for himself."

"I can assure you all the premiers will be there to talk about the constitutional changes, if he wants to go down that road — I highly recommend not to," he added.

Soon after, it was Trudeau's turn to take reporters’ questions at a ceremony in Laval, north of Montreal, on Monday, where the U.S. vaccine maker Moderna is building a facility that could turn out 100 million vaccines for the next pandemic, as well as vaccines to prevent cancer and other diseases.

Trudeau said that what is “top of mind” for Canadians now is the rising cost of living, climate change, good jobs now and for the future — “not reopening the Constitution.”

“Our focus is on being there to protect Canadians now, always standing up for people's fundamental rights,” he added.

“This government will never back down from standing up for people's rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Also in Montreal on Monday, the Quebec Court of Appeal began two weeks of hearings on Quebec’s Bill 21, declaring the province officially secular and banning the wearing of religious symbols such as the hijab by teachers, who are considered in the law to be figures of state authority.

In ruling such a ban was legal, Justice Marc-André Blanchard of the Quebec Superior Court noted that “The use by the legislator of the notwithstanding clause appears excessive, because it is too broad, although legally unassailable in the current state of the law.”

The Court of Appeal will hear from lawyers representing the Quebec government as well as groups and individuals both opposed to and in favour of the ban.

With files from Jessica Smith Cross.

Justin Trudeau shuts down suggestion of reopening Constitution to amend notwithstanding clause

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